Swedish-born photographer Erik Johansson makes magic happen, bending reality and creating stunning, out of this world photos without using any CGI at all. That means nothing in his photos has been constructed on the computer. While he does use digital aid to piece together and retouch his photo, the rest is all physical work.

To stage his alternate dimensions, Johansson actually uses physical objects, sometimes even creating original props, too. After shooting the various parts of his photos separately, he then pieces together on the computer.

The Creators Project recently sat down with the photographer, who discussed this photo manipulation process. "For me, it's basically just problem solving when I’m trying to make a picture. It always starts with an idea and then I just have to sort of figure out how to translate that idea into an image," Johansson said. Why did he decide to take the longer route and avoid Photoshop?

"It takes just as much time to do something in real life as it does trying to 'fake it' in Photoshop, so I just thought it would be more fun to do it for real," he explained. "And because you use actual images, no one can ever tell you it doesn’t look realistic, which to me is very important." Click through to The Creators Project to read the rest of Johannson's interview. Also, watch the magic unfold in the video below.